NC candidate: Teaching profession needs an overhaul, and not just more pay | Opinion

In 2010, I knew a lot of future teachers. I had returned to UNC Greensboro to get my teaching certification and become a band director, and I was surrounded by young, idealistic music education majors who couldn’t wait to get into the classroom. My younger brother was preparing to teach and coach high school football. Future teachers were all around me.

I never became a classroom teacher. With salaries frozen, I joined the military instead. Most of my classmates and friends became teachers. My brother became a teacher. But almost 15 years later, many of these friends — and my brother — are now former teachers.

It’s not hard to see why.

For as long as I can remember, advocates have called for increasing teacher pay, and they aren’t wrong. North Carolina’s average teacher pay is comparable to some of our neighboring states, but our starting pay lags behind. The low salaries make it difficult for teachers to start families and purchase homes.

But cries to throw more money into the pot oversimplify the problem. It’s not just teacher pay — the teaching profession needs an overhaul.

For one, the teaching profession isn’t built for ambitious young people. Set aside the low starting pay — where are the opportunities for promotion or advancement? How do we reward teachers who excel in the classroom? For most teachers, the job duties in year one look the same as the job duties in year 30.

And how do we incentivize excellence? In other professions, one can put in extra hours, increase their output and obtain promotions within a job field based on the results they achieve. But not teachers. If our educators want to boost their pay, they have few options. They can leave the classroom to go into administration, or go to other states or other professions. They can get board-certified. Or, they can wait.

None of these are great options if we want to keep highly-qualified teachers in the classroom. And we should want to keep them in the classroom. Research suggests that teacher quality is the most important in-school factor for student success. If our goal is to improve student outcomes, that means we can find no better investment than recruiting and retaining quality educators.

Some school systems, including in North Carolina, have adopted Advanced Teaching Roles, or “ATRs,” as one important tool in the toolbox. ATRs provide opportunities for increased teacher pay while improving the professional experience for educators. They offer schools the flexibility to place highly qualified teachers into leadership roles where they teach more students, lead groups of teachers and provide professional support, and formally mentor young teachers.

ATRs aren’t a new idea. North Carolina launched a state ATR program in 2016. They’re now in about 450 schools statewide, and for good reasons.: they’ve brought measurable success for students and they’re popular among educators. According to a 2020 report issued by North Carolina State University’s Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, ATRs sharpen the learning curve for young teachers, they provide financial incentives and opportunities for advancement for highly-qualified teachers, and they lessen the burden on school administrators. These outcomes benefit teachers and students.

The General Assembly should continue to expand ATRs statewide. That doesn’t mean they’ll be a panacea for public education in North Carolina. The challenges with our public schools run wide and deep. Moreover, education is a long-term investment. We won’t reap the full benefit of today’s investment until our students graduate and enter the workforce.

But eating the proverbial elephant starts with a single bite. We should target that bite for maximum impact to do right by our children and give the taxpayers the most bang for their buck. We’ve already started down this road with some success. By continuing to reform the outdated organizational structures that hinder education, we can improve public schools for everyone — from students to administrators. That would be a huge win for our kids and for the state.